Upbeat Hyena 4

Upbeat Hyena
Chapter 4

-VB-

Viviane and I came back to Earth (not yet Earth Bet).

I left her to do whatever she wanted, and I went off to explore more of Seattle.

Seattle in the 1990’s, it seemed, was not much different from Seattle in the 2010’s.

Actually, scratch that. It was different. This port city that should have played a huge part of the Pacific Ocean trade network showed little bits and pieces of degradation from the rise of the parahumans and the chaos they brought with them. While richer and important parts of the city remained pristine, all other areas looked worse with wear, holes, and more.

I walked through the Queen Anne neighborhood just north of Seattle city proper, and all I could say was …

There was a lot of gang signs.

‘So what will you be doing? You weren’t clear about that when I asked,’ I asked Viviane through the … I wouldn’t call it a demonic connection, but this connection only existed because she was of my demonic blood (my intuition told me that my flesh and blood children wouldn’t have this connection), but it was a demonic connection.

I needed a better name for it.

‘I… don’t know.’

I hummed. I supposed that I wouldn’t be fair to her if I berated her for not knowing what to do after several life-changing revelations and alterations.

‘Okay.’

There was a pause before she responded back to me. ‘Just okay?’

‘Yup. I made you into a demon, but I’m not going to go and tell you every minutia of the things you should do.’ I made sure to send her my best impression of a smirk through this bond. Hmm, nope. Bond doesn’t work. ‘Your new instinct will guide you well enough.’

She didn’t respond after that.

As for me…

“This fucker has ADHD or something?”

I may have been too focused on my brief conversation with Viviane. So focused, in fact, that I haven’t noticed the plainclothes gangsters walking up to me with switchblades and a single glock. I glanced down at the glock in the hand of the frontmost gangster. He didn’t look older than eighteen. It was a nice gun. It looked new.

I … smelled sin.

Oh God, that was heady. I could actually smell sin. I took a deep breath in and my body shuddered as I felt like I just tasted the best steak of the month. It wasn’t just one kind of sin, either. They were just dripping in all manners of them.

I smiled as I loomed over them, and also made sure to spread my essence out into the neighborhood. It would make people avoid this place unless they absolutely had to cross here.

The gun-totting gangster didn’t seem to get it but the others did behind him.

“Playing with your friends, hmm?” I asked.

“What the fuck is-”

“Uh dude, I think you might want to pull back,” one of the switchblades stuttered.

I wanted, briefly, to make myself seem like a sleazy salesman. Confuse them, you know?

But the mere idea of groveling and rubbing my hands irked something deep inside me. I felt, briefly, my title react to such a thought. It said in no small terms that we were the [Prince of Demons] and our domain a [Kingdom]. We did not bow even in defeat.

As fast as it came, it went, leaving me shuddering as I realized once again just how deep my transformation had changed me.

So I stood my ground, continuing to loom over the clueless and dumb gangster in front of me and the more street savvy and wise switchblades behind him.

“He’s just a dude,” the glock holder grunted.

“I was not aware that Queen Anne’s neighborhood had a gang,” I hummed thoughtfully. “I must be mistaken, right?”

The glock took offense to that. “The fuck are you talking about, nerd? We, Nine Blades, protect this neighborhood! Who the fuck are you to-?”

The switchblades were backing off quickly.

I looked up from the glock towards the switchblades. “Stay,” I ordered, and they, against their desires, became rooted in place.

“Fuck, I knew it! He’s a cape!”

The glock finally got it through his noggin that there was something wrong. He held his gun up and -.

My left arm changed shape into a momentarily amorphous limb of nothingness before it sharpened. I struck and punched right through the boy’s head.

“My my my,” I crooned as the boy remained alive because I wanted him to keep living. “That’s a very hasty action.”

As blood dribbled out of the hole in his head which still had my transformed obsidian-like arm through it, he screamed as the shock wore off and pain set in.

“Oh hush,” I chided. “Your brain doesn’t even have pain receptors. The most pain you should be feeling right now should only be a killer migraine at worst.”

‘Get it? A killer migraine?’ I asked Viviane while showing her what I was seeing.

She sent back her disgust at my pun.

“Now, what am I going to do with you?” I asked rhetorically as I looked him over. “So young and so dumb. Mind you, not all young people are dumb and not all dumb people are young. Even if I decided to use you, I’ll only have someone who’s both young and dumb. That doesn’t seem very smart of me, right?”

So I let him go. My arm phased through his skull and he dropped dead as the only thing keeping him alive left him to die.

Reaching down, I picked up the glock and turned it over in my hand as I straightened back up.

I turned to look at the switchblade gangsters, and one of them was whispering loudly.

“Where the fuck is the police?!”

I snorted in amusement. Oh, now you want the police when you lot were the ones to walk up to me and be threatening?

“Don’t worry,” I smiled. “I made sure no one would interrupt us.”

“Fuck fuck fuck-!”

I tilted my head a little. “Tell me, what do you guys think about becoming enslaved demons?” I cackled at their pleas and begging. “Don’t worry, my dear sinners! I will be a good master for you all!”